University of Kentucky gets $11.3 million grant to battle obesity, heart disease

4:48 PM,
Dec. 16, 2013

Healthy food being served at Bloom Elementary School by cafeteria food server Carol Davis.

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The University of Kentucky has received one of its largest health grants ever - $11.3 million from the National Institutes of Health for research on conditions that have long plagued Kentuckians: obesity and cardiovascular disease.

"The impact is significant for Kentucky because we have higher incidences of both," said Lisa Cassis, a UK professor, chairwoman of the Department of Molecular and Biomedical Pharmacology, and a faculty member of the Barnstable Brown Diabetes and Obesity Center. "Cardiovascular disease is the primary cause of death for individuals who are obese."